The Legendary Actor - Chapter 24

“The Pacific” had just begun shooting, and the entire crew was running like a meticulous machine.

But after the first week of filming, Renly was left with nothing to do. It was not until episode 5 that Eugene would join the Pacific War as a recruit and enter the long and arduous tug-of-war.

For nearly a month and a half, Renly was off duty, just moving around with the crew. This was the first time that Renly experienced the true meaning of filming: “To make a movie is to wait”, a quote from James, who played Robert Leckie.

During the shooting, most of the time was actually spent waiting, even for the main character. Not only did it take a lot of time to set up and prepare for each scene, but each scene had to be shot in separate takes, with different actors, different angles, and different distances, and a scene had to be shot seven or eight times without any mistakes.

Therefore, waiting is a must for every actor, which is far from what Renly imagined the life on the set would be like.

In fact, Renly was not working during this time, and he could have taken a break, although the entire crew was in Australia, and he could have gone to the Gold Coast and back if he wanted. But after some consideration – and Renly did consider this option – he decided to stay for one simple reason: “The Pacific”.

The series is unique in that it spans over two years, and truly depicts the U.S. Army’s struggle with the Japanese in the Pacific, and the countless battles it has fought to the death, both large and small, that each night and each encounter has had an immeasurable impact on the soldiers.

Renly could have chosen to go on vacation, but he would have been removed from the realism of the entire battlefield, and the disconnection of the time span would have affected the performance. He was already living in a time of peace, and his knowledge of war came from images and words, but he could never really feel the indelible effects of war on soldiers.

Not only did Renly choose to stay on the set, but he and the rest of the cast went through grueling shoots, in and out of the rain and wind, to really feel the trials of each battle.

Two weeks ago, for example, Renly, along with Jon Seda and James Badge Dale, spent forty-nine hours lying in the mud in a torrential downpour without sleep, and even more so, without the luxury of a shower. The fear of having to fight for one’s life in the midst of physical exhaustion is beyond the imagination..

As a bonus, Renly made a lot of friends in the crew, and they easily found empathy through the experience of sharing the joys and sorrows, which was indeed the quickest and most effective way for Renly, as a newcomer, to integrate into the crew. At the same time, it also prevented the isolation and exclusion of Richard’s group from happening.

Towards the end of September, Renly was finally back in action again, as Eugene had officially landed on the battlefield which meant that he was no longer a foil, but had gradually taken over Robert Leckie’s position in the first half of the series, and had become the first lead of the entire series, shouldering the burden of the project.

In the blink of an eye, “The Pacific” crew has been filming for over four months now, and they arrived in Australia in the middle of winter, and now it’s summer. If nothing else, they would be spending Christmas in the summer for the first time.

“Everyone, take cover, the blast radius has just been marked, do not exceed the range line, again, do not exceed the range line! Find cover ahead of time and follow the route!”

The leader of the special effects team held the megaphone and shouted out.

In fact, over the past four months, they’ve experienced double-digit of explosions, both large and small, and the actors are no strangers to them.

However, the scene they were shooting today is unique because it’s in an empty playground, and while there are many ruined bunkers nearby, the scene is about an army stuck in the middle of nowhere, when an explosion – an air strike from friendly forces that, due to a timing error in intelligence, led to a devastating air strike executed by friendly forces – turns into a disaster.

The fact that it was open ground made it even more difficult to control the explosion, especially since the actors also had to cross the square during the blast, yet the special effects team was still on top of their game, having rehearsed and calculated for five days before the scene.

“Rookie.” James’s teasing voice was heard. A nickname that had followed Renly since the first day, even though all the actors in the cast had praised Renly’s acting skills. However, the nickname meant that Renly was truly accepted by everyone.

Renly was fixing his shoulder strap, he was a mortar man, and the mortar on his back was his weapon, along with the whole shooting ammunition, but today he has an extra rifle in his hand, so he needs to adjust his posture, and without even looking back, Renly returns, “Don Juan, you’ve got to say something.” “Don Juan” was James’ nickname for the self-described amorous affairs.

“I bet you big eyes will fall over later.” James’ words prompted “Big Eyes” Rami to complain, “Hey! I’m not that clumsy, okay! I’m sure I won’t be in trouble today!”

Renly held his rifle and looked around for a moment to confirm the course of advance, “Don Juan, I bet you that big eye will be hit, dirt right in the head!” Walking through the blast, while none of them would be hurt, it was inevitable that they would be affected by the explosives, even if it was necessary for the sake of realism.

“Rookie!” Rami yelled reluctantly, but had no choice but to shake his fist in frustration with both James and Renly, “I would never!”

James and Renly ignored Rami’s ambition and debated whether they could finish the scene in three days, with Rami left alone, a scene that caused the other actors to giggle. Then the voice of the scene notes came into my ear, “All departments stand by.”

Renly interrupted the conversation, slowed his breathing. Becoming highly concentrated, he quickly got into the rhythm of shooting again.

When he heard the explosion, Eugene bent over and ran along the established route, his vision blurred by the flying dust, and he could feel the dirt hitting him from time to time, the sound of intense gunfire in his ears, and a whole row of bullet holes splattered in the rubble beneath his feet – it was obvious that there was an intense attack in the air, which forced him to start looking for shelter for a while.

But he didn’t have time to think about the threat of death; his blank brain was ringing with alarm bells and he could feel the precariousness of the situation in every cell of his body, which made his steps steadier than ever, and he came out of the shelter again, crawling onward, his heartbeat and breathing rhythm losing their meaning at this moment.

“Cut!”

The explosions and gunfire suddenly stopped, and David’s voice echoed through the speakers across the clearing, “Stay in place, everyone, stay in place, next shot of Robert going back, camera crew changing angles, actors stay in place!”

Renly’s shoulders slackened slightly. In fact, relatively speaking, the shooting of war scenes is more simple, because in the midst of the gunfire, what acting needs is not subtlety and depth, but realism, relying on the body instincts/instincts to work with the props team, special effects team, camera team, this is enough. The real difficulty is the scenes that are about settling down after the battle is over, and this is what distinguishes “The Pacific” from “Band of Brothers”, a lot of psychological portrayal and character exploration, which places higher demands on the actors and the director.

“Ah!” A scream suddenly leaped out of the noise, skittering sharply across the sky, and everyone brushed past it toward the source of the noise, and then Renly saw, no more than five paces away, Rami crawling on the ground in pain, his hands over his mouth, looking as if he were injured.

“Merriell down, Merriell down!” Renly immediately raised his voice and called out, calling out by Rami’s character’s name in the play, while quickly running over, “Dude, are you okay?” Although the amount of the explosion was carefully calculated, mishaps were inevitable. While shooting war scenes, everyone had more or less some small wounds.

Rami brought his feet up hard on the floor, splattering the soil, but he remained silent.

Renly looked up and down, but at least there was no blood, which was a good sign. Then Renly saw that Rami kept making eyes at him, and Renly wondered, “What’s wrong? Were you injured or did you fall down accidentally?”

Rami’s expression became more and more anxious, he unclasped his hands and couldn’t help but let out a low groan/moan, but gritted his teeth and said, “I’m fine, I’m fine, don’t let everyone come, don’t …”

There was so little information that Renly didn’t get Rami’s point, “Let’s get the doctor over here and check it out.” Before he could finish his sentence, the crew and other fellow actors and actresses were already running over, asking about the situation with concern. Renly could only look up and explain, “I don’t know what’s going on, but Rami just suddenly fell down and then called in pain, so let the medics come and check it out.”

James crouched down next to Renly and asked with concern, “Rami, are you okay?” Usually joking, being a sign of intimacy, now they were more anxious than anyone else when it came to the situation.

Renly frowned, just last month, he dislocated his arm and sprained his ankle, although none of them were major problems, but he had to rest for two days.

Rami had been lying on the ground for several minutes, but he hadn’t turned over, nor was he able to stand up, which seemed very serious.

Scanning again, Renly tried to see if it was a trauma or what was going on … Then Renly saw a strange little detail – there was a thing stuck up Rami’s ass, it looked like a twig, huh?